Table for Two

When you first marry, you don't think much about the future. My mother in law said when she and Dad T first married, she had to wait until he got paid about two weeks later for her to join him at the air base in Salina, Kansas. They were married 66 years ago at the courthouse in Madison County Arkansas and for the most part they didn't have a plan. They just knew it was going to work!

You look into each other's eyes and not once are you worried about how you are going to pay your bills or where you will live. You just take a day at a time, then a month at a time and before you know it... 60 plus years have slipped by. The last few years have been the hardest, Dad's stroke changed everything. For the first time they needed help doing things. Fiercely independent, they are the lucky minority of seniors who manage well until they are almost 90.

It's not easy, but like everything else in their marriage, they have figured it out. Dad lives at the VA Nursing Home and Mom lives at Brookstone Assisted Living. Three times a week she goes to visit and his eyes sparkle when he sees her.

It's too early for Cupid to have had a hand in this romantic dinner that was planned as a surprise by nurses on the 5th floor, but only those with big ♥'s can plan something this sweet! Complete with flowers and a miniature wedding cake, a table for two was set up in the library. Big smiles, a few tears, just like that first day 66 years ago when they both said "I do"... and meant it!

 

A big THANK YOU to the nurses at the Fayetteville Veterans Home for making this magic happen!